The present invention relates to the measurement of communication market statistics. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring market statistics for communication market service providers.
Over the past 20 years wireless communication services have progressed from being used as a toy and a status symbol for the rich, to an indispensable communication tool for the common citizen. Currently the wireless penetration rate in the United States is approximately 50%. In other words, half of the United States"" 280 million population subscribe to wireless communication services. As the wireless communication industry has grown, competition for subscribers continues to increase. For example, some wireless communication markets which were previously served by only two wireless service providers (WSP) are now served by as many as nine different wireless service providers. Accordingly, each wireless service provider is vying for subscribers in a particular market with many other wireless service providers.
As competition between wireless service providers intensifies and as market conditions change rapidly, often on a market-by-market basis, wireless service providers need to obtain reliable market statistics about themselves and their competition in order to make strategic and tactical decisions. Since the wireless service providers are competing over the same subscribers, these wireless service providers are not willing to share market information with their competitors. Accordingly, it would be desirable to obtain reliable measurements of market information, e.g., market share information, regarding competitors in the wireless services market.
One technique for obtaining market share information is through the use of conventional surveys. These surveys involve asking a series of questions via, e.g., telephonic communication means, written communication means or oral communication means. However, due to the costs involved with these surveys, the surveys typically have a very low sample rates. In addition, due to consumer confusion regarding wireless communication services, these surveys tend to have a bias which skews the results. For example, when asked what wireless service provider a particular person subscribes to, many people respond with the name of the manufacturer of the wireless handset instead of the name of the wireless service provider. The high costs, low sample rate, and the bias of these traditional surveys do not provide adequate results upon which a wireless service provider can base business decisions.
Another technique for obtaining market share information is known as the dial down technique. Currently each wireless service provider is assigned a range of telephone numbers, known as a line range, for which it can assign to wireless subscribers. To accommodate new subscribers, a wireless service provider will, at any particular point in time, have only a limited number of the telephone numbers in a line range assigned to subscribers. Accordingly, the dial down technique involves employing a bank of telephone operators dialing line ranges assigned to a particular wireless service provider. These operators then listen to the connection of the call to determine whether a particular number within the line range has been assigned to a subscriber. The use of operators listening to call connections is very high in cost, and is very time consuming. The high costs and the time consuming nature of this technique will result in a low sample rate. Accordingly, this technique does not provide adequate results upon which a wireless service provider can base business decisions.
A newer technique for obtaining market share information is known as the over the air (OTA) technique. This technique involves placing specialized receivers throughout a particular market to collect data from the control channel transmissions between wireless devices and wireless networks. Specifically, many wireless standards employed in the United States require a wireless device""s mobile identification number (MIN) to be transmitted between the wireless network and the wireless device. A MIN is transmitted between a network and a wireless device when a wireless device is turned on, turned off, receives an incoming call, places an outgoing call, and is turned on waiting for a call to be placed or received. Accordingly, these specialized receivers will collect MINs from the forward control channel and log each MIN transmitted between wireless devices and a network. After a period of time, the number of unique MINs received by the specialized receivers are employed as a statistical sampling of the number of MINs assigned within a particular line range.
Although the over the air technique is more accurate and often less costly than the previous techniques, the over the air technique suffers from many deficiencies. For example, there is a percentage of wireless subscribers who only use their wireless devices in case of emergency. Similarly, some users of wireless devices travel for extended periods of time away from their home market. Accordingly, the over the air technique is likely to not account for these subscribers. In addition, the over the air technique requires the cost of the specialized receivers, and the cost of the manpower to place and remove the specialized receivers from the field. Moreover, some communications standards, e.g., the Global System for Communication (GSM) and the Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN), do not transmit MINs over a forward control channel, thus rendering this technique useless for measurements of these types of systems. Furthermore, obtaining accurate measurements for subscriber churn and gross additions using the over the air technique is difficult and inexact. In addition, local number portability adds further complications to the over the air technique.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide methods and apparatus which can provide statistically accurate estimates of market statistics without the high costs, low sample rates, and technical barriers of the previous techniques. It would also be desirable to provide measurements other than market share, such as subscriber churn and gross additions.
The present invention provides method and apparatus for determining market statistics for communication service providers. Specifically, the present invention employs determinations of whether or not a sampling of telephone numbers are assigned by a particular service provider to determine market statistics. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, queries of a Local Number Portability database are used to determine whether or not a telephone number has been assigned by a service provider. These queries are also employed to collect statistics regarding the porting of telephone numbers among service providers. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a message is used to obtain a response. The response is interpreted to determine whether or not the telephone number associated with the wireless device is assigned. In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, a sampling of telephone numbers are dialed over a digital line. Based upon the result of the dialing, it is determined whether or not the telephone numbers are assigned by the service provider. The present invention can also account for telephone numbers which have been ported between service providers in networks which employ local number portability.